Drafting
For 60 seconds between battle rounds, the drafting screen displays the Warriors of the Chat logo, client version number, current round number, players enrolled in the current round, and a log of equipment and level up purchases. The purpose of the drafting screen is to let players check their experience and gold between matches so they do not have to keep track of their gold and experience. Character stats or equipment are not shown on the Drafting screen, however, and there is no method for retrieving these values from the game so players are encouraged to keep character sheets as they progress. Players only need to enroll their characters in battle using the !fight command once for each set of five rounds of battle, shown below the logo in the Information Header, which is detailed in the following section. Information Header What we will call the Information Header is located at the top of the drafting screen. It is comprised of the Warriors of the Chat logo and game version, the current round count and time until the next round, the number of players enrolled for battle, and the link for this Wiki. Player Block The section of the Drafting screen that we name the Player Block lists all players registered for the current series of five matches in the order that they registered. Each player is listed with their registration number (starting from 1), their level, available experience, and available gold, and finally their name. An example entry is shown below (taken from the image to the right): 1 19 Exp 8 1114g macradarkstar If a character has enough experience to level up, a caret is shown next to their level. An example entry is shown below: 12 1^ Exp 24 36g somecharacter One interesting quirk with this system is that player data is not changed once it has been printed on the screen, so purchases will be shown in the shop log, but experience and gold values will not be updated until after the following match. Shop Log The bottom right section of the screen is dedicated to what we will call the Shop Log. This section updates every 10 seconds, after processing each transaction it has received. The shop handles all experience and gold purchases, such as Races, Classes and Abilities, Weapons and Equipment, and Pets. It is always running in the background of the game and can be used whether the game is on the Drafting screen or in the middle of a match. When a player purchases something from the shop, a generic message is shown to alert the player that the transaction has occurred. If the player has insufficient experience to complete a transaction, an error is shown in the log. No message is shown if the player has insufficient gold to buy equipment or a pet. The shop will not overwrite any equipment that a character is holding, so a player can safely try to buy the same item they're holding without repercussions. Once a character holds a new item, however, the old item is lost and must be purchased again later if it is desired.